Terryn L Maybeck

Terryn Maybeck credits ability to notice holes and overlaps in community services to her background overseeing architecture. She notices most, the gaps in service that affect children and the needy.

Maybeck first started filling Salvation Army Christmas Stockings for city children with my Girl Scouts, organizing and inviting other troops in the unit to participate. Five years later, when the economy took a dive, she decided to focus on her immediate community and found that the local Food Cupboard Clients had doubled in one month.

That same year, The Salvation Army in the city opted to discontinue their stocking program. She gratefully took their leftover stockings and launched a new program: The Victor/ Farmington Christmas Stocking Program. Gradually, the program expanded and serves infants to high school seniors. She devised a recipe that volunteer stocking stuffers could follow; toothbrush and toothpaste, a craft for Christmas day, stuffed animal, book, coloring/ activity book and crayons as well as an active toy such as a ball, Hacky Sack, or jump rope.

In 2010, the first year of the stocking program, Girl Scouts filled stockings to accommodate 63 children. By 2014, in the fifth year of the stocking program, 329 stockings were given to children.

The Christmas stocking program is not designed to be a quick hand-out, but designed to be a celebration. Live music, hot chocolate and cookies ease the wait in line and volunteers wear elf or Santa hats to help spread the cheer during the season of giving a little farther.

Do you know someone who makes a difference by spreading cheer in their community? Nominate them for a Daily Point of Light Award today!